Chapter 3 - The Blue Folder
The heavy leather restraints clinked against the metal bed frame.
One of the private paramedics grabbed my unburned arm with a bruising grip.
Agony flared across my chest as they violently shifted my weight.
"Be careful with her," Ethan ordered in a voice dripping with fake concern.
"She might try to hurt herself again."
Rachel grabbed the paramedic's wrist and shoved him backward.
"Get your hands off my patient right now," she snarled.
Arthur Vance checked his expensive gold watch.
"Arrest the doctor for obstructing a court order," Arthur told the police officers.
The officers looked conflicted, but they had to obey the signed judge's order.
One officer gently took Rachel's arm to pull her away.
I knew I had only seconds left before the sedatives hit my bloodstream.
I forced myself to speak through the searing pain.
"Rachel," I gasped, my voice barely a whisper.
"Code Blue Folder."
Rachel stopped struggling instantly.
Her eyes widened as she remembered the secret protocol we arranged during law school.
She yanked her arm free from the officer and slammed a red emergency button on the wall.
Blaring alarms immediately echoed throughout the entire hospital wing.
"What are you doing?" Ethan yelled, covering his ears.
"A Code Blue Folder triggers an automatic hospital lockdown for a biohazard threat," Rachel lied smoothly.
Heavy steel security doors slammed shut over the windows and the main exit.
Nobody could leave this room for at least thirty minutes.
Arthur's confident smirk finally vanished from his face.
"This is a parlor trick," the lawyer spat.
"You are just delaying the inevitable."
Margaret marched toward the bed and raised her hand as if to slap me.
"You always have to ruin everything, you ungrateful wretch!" she screamed.
Before her hand could strike my face, the television monitor on the hospital wall suddenly flickered to life.
It was not playing the local news.
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It was playing the security footage from my kitchen.
And the volume was turned all the way up.
